Fisher: Royal Canadian Navy navigates rough seas

ABOARD HMCS CALGARY — These are difficult times for the Royal Canadian Navy.

Earlier this month, Canada’s top sailor, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, ordered HMCS Whitehorse home to CFB Esquimalt from a mine-sweeping drill near San Diego that is part of the Hawaii-based Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise because of a series of incidents involving misbehaviour by its crew.

The navy lost its West Coast flagship, HMCS Algonquin, when the 40-year-old destroyer collided with HMCS Protecteur during a towing exercise last year and remains tied up because rust has made it unseaworthy. Then the 45-year-old Protecteur had a serious on board fire in February that left it dead in the water in rough seas 600 kilometres east of Pearl Harbor. After getting temporary repairs done in Hawaii, the 170-metre-long refuelling and supply ship was finally able to return under tow by a U.S. navy tugboat to Vancouver Island in June. But it is unlikely to ever go to sea again and is not scheduled to be replaced until 2019.

Before their accidents, both the Algonquin and the Protecteur were slated to have been players in the RIMPAC war games this year. With the Whitehorse ordered to return to British Columbia that has left the Calgary, which does not have a venerable Sea King helicopter embarked, and the submarine, HMCS Victoria, to fly the Canadian colours in Hawaii. Meanwhile, HMCS Nanaimo has continued to participate in the mine-sweeping exercise off the Californian coast.

Canadian sailors conduct war games in the frigates Operations Room as part of the Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise off Hawaii. HMCS Calgary is the lead Canadian ship at what is the largest naval war games in the world. HANDOUT: The Royal Canadian Navy.

At the same time as the Algonquin and Protecteur were unexpectedly tied up, several of Canada’s s 12 frigates were in for refits that are part of a $4.2 billion upgrade. This unfortunate convergence of events means that hundreds of Canadian sailors are at risk of not getting the sea time required to remain proficient in highly specialized trades.

To try to mitigate that problem the Calgary, which is the only West Coast frigate to have received the upgrade so far, has embarked about 80 sailors from other ships that are tied up at home.

“I wouldn’t characterize it as difficult. I would say that we are constantly adjusting our plans,” said Vice-Admiral Norman during an interview conducted two days before it was revealed that he ordered the Whitehorse home. “There are always challenges in everything that everybody does,” he said.

While “we have perhaps less opportunity for our sailors than we would have otherwise liked, we’re maximizing the training of this exercise from a Canadian perspective,” the RCN’s top sailor said.

As regards the specific absence of the Algonquin and Protecteur from what have been the largest naval war games ever held, the admiral said that with 25,000 people from 22 countries now at sea on more than 50 ships, “the relative impact of one or two ships (being absent) is fairly negligible. From an RCN point-of-view, we are making the most of the situation.”

The navy devised a plan four or five years ago to get its bridge watch keepers, engineers and technicians the sea training they needed during the frigate fleet upgrade and has applied the same principles to overcome the unexpected problems that have beset the Algonquin and Protecteur, said Chief Petty Officer 1st class Stephane Lesperance of the Calgary.

HMCS Calgary cruises west of Hawaii during the Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise. With the Royal Canadian Navy’s Pacific fleet flagship, HMCS Algonquin and the supply ship HMCS Protecteur tied up at home because of accidents, the Calgary is the lead Canadian vessel at what is the largest naval war games in the world. Matthew Fisher/Postmedia News

“It is a tragedy but we got our money out of those ships,” said the ship’s coxswain, who has been a sailor for 30 years and is now with his 8th ship. “It was a significant fire (on the Protecteur) and the crew saved the ship. That was very impressive. A situation like that proved the value of our training.”

As for the situation now confronting the navy because only a few of its ships can be put to sea, “we have to be honest about it,” Lesperance said. “We have to manage it.

“We, that is the Canadian navy, are committed to getting them training and this exercise has been the perfect time to do it.”

The Calgary’s skipper, Commander John Wilson, said that while having a Sea King or another helicopter would have been “a huge multiplier,” his ship received help from choppers flown by the U.S. navy and even the Chilean navy. Without a helicopter on board, he noted that the Calgary has been able to bring along several more Canadian-built Hammerhead sea drones which have provided fast-moving targets that mimic small attack boats for U.S., Norwegian and Chilean warships and U.S. helicopters to shoot at during live-fire exercises.

A U.S. destroyer sails in the haze on the horizon while playing war games with the British Columbia-based frigate west of Hawaii. Canada is one of 22 nations participating the Rim of the Pacific exercise, which is the biggest in the maritime naval gathering in the world. Matthew Fisher/Postmedia News.

The Canadian frigate is also to fire several new Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSMs) in a live-fire exercise after RIMPAC.

The key upgrade done to the Calgary is a new command and control combat system. This means that the ship’s management of information leaped “from the late 1980s into a concept that is entirely of the 21st century,” Wilson said. “Our ability to display information and make decisions has been greatly enhanced.”

The Royal Canadian Navy is only one part of the armed forces contribution to RIMPAC. Six RCAF CF-18 fighter jets, two in-air refuelling aircraft, three CP-140 Aurora anti-submarine aircraft and a rifle company from the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry are also in Hawaii.

The exercise has cost Ottawa $5 million not including fuel, said Rear admiral Gilles Couturier, who is overseeing the maritime component of the war games. Involving all three branches of the Canadian military in a joint exercise with so many other countries was a way “to maintain a good level of readiness” after the Afghanistan mission ended, he said.

“It is no secret the Algonquin and Protecteur aren’t here and it is regrettable that we couldn’t do that, but we have more than 1,000 people here,” he said. “The main objective is to get tactical level training.

Our other objective is to work in a coalition setting.

“The Americans like to work with our sub and we get to play against their subs while maybe being controlled by Koreans or the Chileans. We don’t have too many opportunities to do that.”

Postmedia's international affairs columnist is Canada's longest serving foreign correspondent. He has lived abroad for 30 years in Europe, the Middle East, Far East and, most recently, Afghanistan. His... read more work has taken him to 155 countries, all U.S. states, Canadian provinces and territories and the Magnetic North Pole. Professional interests include international relations, security issues, conflict zones and the Arctic. Personal enthusiasms include military histories, historical novels, hockey, baseball, fishing for pickerel and travel by train or ship to anywhere.View author's profile